2015-08-29: Conquering the Urban Jungle Fear Factor with Friends

This weekend was another big adventure day with the Geocaching gang. Our challenge for today was to conquer the Urban Jungle/Fear Factor, a D5/T5 rated cache right in the heart of the city of Ocala.

Because it was a 2 hour drive from home, Candy and I decided to drive up yesterday and do some local Geocaching. Then stay the night so we wouldn't have to wake up so early. We picked up 28 caches yesterday with the Southern Fried power run series along with a couple of others mixed in.

Then this morning we met up with fellow cachers: clark boys, Daykinator, FL-Geo-Trekker, saylorboys+mom, TeamFelixG, and TeamReedica. The rendezvous point was in an office parking lot, the coordinates for Stage 1 of a 7 Stage adventure. The best way I can describe the Urban Jungle/Fear Factor cache is like walking down into a long neglected football stadium, overgrown with oak trees, palms, ferns, and other plant life. Mix in some rocks, holes, and a cave and place it behind a WalMart and you have the Urban Jungle.

Some background story from the cache owner was that this was once a quarry long ago. After the miners closed shop and left, the city eventually took it over and made it into a park with picnic tables, nature trails, etc. Then that went unfunded, neglected, and overgrown. Homeless people come and go. And at one point a troubled high school boy was kicked out of his home and he slept in the cave while going to school. All I know is that once you hike down into it, you completely forget you are behind a WalMart or anywhere near civilization!

OK, back to caching... I think the entire place was only 400' or so across, so finding 7 stages to a multi-puzzle cache it seemed as though we did a lot of criss-crossing back and forth. I don't believe the terrain was all that challenging, especially after the bushwhacking hike of a couple weeks ago. Although there was a tree climb involved at one stage and a rock slide climb at the final. The difficulty of the hunt was actually finding the caches as they were hidden very well.

The old steps from when this was a park

This stage near the cave and the final were probably the hardest to find!

After 20 minutes of looking for the final stage, our mission was accomplished. We overcame and conquered the Urban Jungle, and our Fear was NOT a Factor! It was another great adventure and just one more reason we like Geocaching! Because those hundreds or thousands of muggles (non-cachers) who may shop at the Wally World to the north, they never know this place even exists. Now, where to next?

(Thanks to TeamReedica for taking the photos.

I hope you don't mind me using them because I forgot to take some.)

2015-08-09: Hiking to BoonieMan Springs With Geocaching Friends

Today was an adventure unlike any we've had so far. Yes, we have gone on some long hikes. Yes, we've had some bushwhacking. But this was the first where the majority of the hike was some serious bushwhacking! 

We met up with Geocachers TeamFelixG, Daykinator, norma627, clark boys, saylorboys+mom, princessjewel, gutfiddle78, and Lori8996 at the Rock Spring Run State Preserve off of SR-46. The challenge was to bushwhack our way to find the elusive BoonieMan Springs Geocache. Hidden back in November of 2006, it has only been found by 33 brave cachers in the 9 year period.

Gathering in the parking area, the only familiar face for us was TeamFelixG. So introductions began and some chit chat, putting on our gear like athletes preparing for the big game, and mentally preparing ourselves for the challenge ahead. OK, so that may be a little over dramatic! We put on our backpacks, got our hiking sticks and off we went.

The first mile or so wasn't so bad. A clear wide vehicle access road headed into the woods. About 2/3 of the way down we cleared the way for a truck to pass. Wait... we encountered a locked gate. How they'd get through? Why couldn't we have driving down through this first segment? All part of the adventure I guess.

When we arrived at the turnoff point to start bushwhacking the so-called trail, we encountered the man in the truck. He was a researcher tagging and photographing the bear population. He gave us a lesson on the bears and showed us how one just used that tree the previous night to scratch their back.

OK, back to our quest! It was bushwhacking time! Thick palmettos, bushes, pine trees, and the sun beaming down from above. A few of us took turns with the hard part of leading the way, but the big guy "clark boys" did the majority of the hard work and we all appreciated that.

I think we found the remains of BoonieMan

While most of the way was on dry land, there was some water crossing. I mean we were looking for a spring.

OK, so not much of being a beautiful spring. Smelled like sulfur also. Probably why the area wasn't cleared and converted into a park for families to come and picnic. Which is good because then there wouldn't have been the adventure we had today.

But the springs were not the prize we were after. Our quest was for the old ammo can Geocache! The 10 of us began to spread out and start looking for the cache. After about 5 minutes it was spotted by a few of us while we let the others search a little longer. Eventually we announced those words we like hearing: FOUND IT! The cache owner made arrangements with us to replace the old can with a new one.

Celebrating with a bottle of bubbly, a group photo and a long break before bushwhacking it back to the cars.

On the way back we decided to take another route for a change of scenery. Along this route we also encountered some thick mud. With 10 of us passing through, you know there's got to be at least one that will sink knee deep in the mud and have to be pulled out! We took another break upon reaching the vehicle access road because it seemed to be 150 degrees outside and there was absolutely no shade the rest of the way!

Finally we reached the parking area! Yep, we started with 10. Now there's 9. Candy was the only smart one already in the car, a/c on full blast, boots off, legs throbbing, and not able to stand back up to pose for the "after" photo. It was a GREAT day. We enjoyed the new friends we made and look forward to the next adventure!

 

2015-08-08: Just Out For A Drive And Grabbing Some Geocaches

So today was one of those days without an agenda. Just driving around, seeing what's there and Geocaching along the way. From south Orlando, we drove north on the Turnpike and had breakfast in Clermont. We continued heading west on Hwy-50 through Clermont and Groveland and decided to turn north on Hwy-33. Picking up a few caches along 33, we then turned west on CR-470. Several more caches found along CR-470 and we made our way over to Inverness. Our last cache for the day was an earthcache at Henderson Lake. From there we took Hwy-44 over to I-75 and the Turnpike back home. Here's a couple of photos from the day today.

2015-06-28: Road Trip Day #9 The Last Leg Home

Well today was the last day of our summer road trip. Tomorrow we go back to work so we can rest from our vacation. We started out with a little more than 400 miles yet to go. There were still some Geocaching counties left along the way so we just grabbed some quick ones. None really worth mentioning except for this Veterans Memorial Monument in Dawson, Georgia.

WOW, what another GREAT summer road trip! We drove 3,496 miles through 7 states, 227 Geocaches, lots of photos, great memories, history, sights, and much more. We can't wait for the next one!

2015-06-27: Road Trip Day #8 Geocaching and Hiking Tennessee and Alabama

Today is Saturday, only two more days of vacation, and we're still in Tennessee. We really don't want to go home. But...

Waking up in Hillsboro, TN, we had one more local virtual Geocache over by Arnold AFB to get before continuing southbound, then a few more caches in new counties. Then it was a cache stop in a very well known place in Lynchburg, TN. The home of the Jack Daniels Distillery and Visitors Center. While Candy and I are not much for drinkers, although the Jack Daniels BBQ sauce is pretty tasty, we opted out of the tour and just found the cache.

Next stop was Stonebridge Park located in Fayetteville, TN. Within the park is a stone bridge representative of the famous stone bridge that once spanned the Elk River. There's also this log cabin from the 1700's converted to a visitors center.

Here's another example of why we go Geocaching! This is not a public park, not a tourist area, no signs along the road pointing the way. This is private property, somebody's private residence. However, they allow an earthcache here so Geocachers can come and appreciate the beauty of this natural bridge. The history behind this area was that it used to be an unauthorized dump. There was anything from household trash to appliances and even a car dumped here.

This couple happened to notice the natural bridge among the rubble. In 1997, they bought 15 acres that included this bridge and waterfalls. Cleaned it up and began building their dream home. They have since acquired approximately 40 more acres to preserve the area.

Even further down the road is another earthcache in Gadsden, AL. Noccalula Falls is a 90 foot waterfall flowing from Black Creek.

A few caches later and it's time for a hike. And what a great hike it was! Located within the Talladaga National Forest in East Alabama, is the Cheaha State Park. Within the park and on Bald Rock is the "Cache Across America" cache. From the parking area, it was an easy hike to the viewing platform on the boardwalk. A little bit rougher, but still an easy trail to the cache site. This is the highest point in Alabama.

Our last stop for the day was the Brown Bomber. LaFayette, AL was the birthplace of Joe "The Brown Bomber" Louis, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion from 1937 to 1949. Here you'll find a statue in his honor outside the courthouse.

We ended the day in Opelika, AL. Still 400 miles to go and one more day to get there. Hopefully, we still have time to do some Geocaching tomorrow too. Stay tuned.